"
It will help us to a better understanding of that man if his likeness is
impressed upon our memory. The portrait made by his friend Giotto, shows
him as a young man perhaps of twenty to twenty-five years, with a face
noble, beardless, strong, intelligent and pensive--a face which would
not lead one to suspect an appreciation of humor. Yet writers find two
distinct forms of that quality--a playfulness in his eclogues and a
grotesqueness in certain of his assignments to punishments in Hell.
Contrasting with this picture of his early life is the face of his death
mask and of the Naples bust, suggesting the lines
"How stern of lineament, how grim
The father was of Tuscan song."
Here we see him mature with strength of character in every feature and a
seriousness of mien which shows a man with whom one might not take
liberties. It was of Dante in mature life that Boccaccio wrote: "Our
poet was of moderate height and after reaching maturity was accustomed
to walk somewhat bowed with a slow and gentle pace, clad always in such
sober dress as befitted his ripe years. His face was long, his nose
aquiline and his eyes rather large than small. His jaws were large and
his lower lip protruded beyond the upper.
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